Challenge for white liberals lies beyond marches, signs
There are only occasional explicitly racist acts In Marin, where white liberals predominate. But there’s still major work to be done by white liberals in confronting our implicit, often unconscious, racism. I write this for white people who are committed to fighting racism, starting with our own, and especially for parents and teachers.
George Russell’s editorial cartoon in the Marin IJ on June 7 is a metaphor for this challenge. A white couple stands amid flowers at the top of a huge flowerpot. A pile of wild grass labeled “RACISM” lies below. Pointing down, the man says, “CRABGRASS.”
The crabgrass of racism lies outside and below. The reality of racism lies outside their world of flowers. There’s the challenge. Racism lives within the pot, beneath our feet and within us. Pointing down from a privileged height Is easy. Doing the work of recognizing that it is with and within us, is far more challenging.
We may have Black Lives Matter signs and murals, be committed to that movement and march. That’s great, but not nearly enough.
We need to clean up the pot and come down to ground level. Racism is not someone else’s crabgrass. How many white liberals, committed to Black Lives Matter, also try to make sure their kids don’t go to racially mixed schools, or move to the other side of the street when Black young men walk towards them at night?
How many white liberals say they are color blind, or talk about how tolerant they are, and then tell a Black kid in a surprised voice, “Wow, you really did well on that essay!”
As a classic white liberal, I’ve wrestled with this for years. I had good relationships with Black graduate students at San Francisco State University, where I also worked as a mediator in racial and ethnic conflicts. But that’s not enough. While I’m a step beyond the parent in the film “Get Out,” whose claim to being non-racist was “I voted for Obama,” I still have work to do.
To deal with our own racerelated issues we first must acknowledge that we still have work to do. Then we need to feel the pain, feel the weight of slavery, feel the fear that governs their lives, listen and truly hear them, and learn from what they’re saying and doing. Through direct contact, movies, books, however we do it, we have to feel it, experience it.
We have to “know” it viscerally, not just in our brains.
Famed former Sen. Robert Kennedy transformed from a borderline racist into a compassionate man who deeply felt the pain of Latinos and Black Americans. Whether breaking into tears after an encounter with a suffering young Black child or meeting with leaders and saying, “Please, tell me what I can do for you.” Black and brown leaders, exemplified by Cesar Chavez, loved him because they felt his compassion. In 1968, he felt the pain of the Black and brown people.
Greg Popovich, the San Antonio Spurs coach, is learning. In conversations with Spurs’ players and staff he’s been amazed at the level of hurt. “It would bring you to tears,” he says, his voice cracking.
“It’s even deeper than you thought, and that’s what really made me start to think: You’re a privileged son of a bitch and you still don’t get it as much as you think you do. You gotta work harder. You gotta be more aware. You gotta be pushed and embarrassed. You’ve gotta call it out.”
He is open, self-reflective and non-defensive.
As he feels it and commits himself to confronting his own racism, so must we. How do we get there? Step one is acknowledging our own racism. Examine it.
Let it make us feel uncomfortable. In August I’ll share resources and next steps.
To deal with our own race-related issues we first must acknowledge that we still have work to do. Then we need to feel the pain, feel the weight of slavery, feel the fear that governs their lives, listen and truly hear them, and learn from what they’re saying and doing.